i've got new york all to myself
I realize that I've been home from tour for over a week and still haven't updated this thing. Believe it or not, I've been keeping myself busy. I've been forcing myself to play bass for at least a couple hours a day, ear training a new (hopefully challenging) song every day as well. It's been a good way of keeping up my chops during extensive off-time (I just used the word chops... I'm officially a pretentious ass clown). I also went and saw Evil Dead: The Musical with Kelli, Rob, Mons, Charles, and J.Lo which was a hella good time. Though it's definitely a cheesy ass play that's only really funny to people who know the movies pretty well, it was a severely fun night out.

Apparently I have New Year's plans. And I'm really excited. For some reason, New Year's always really excites me, even though it's rarely anything special. Last year was, however, the BEST New Year's of my life by a long shot. Though I know I won't be seeing TMBG, if this year can even come close to last, I'll be a very happy individual.

Tonight! I went into NYC with Keith, Craig, and Kelli to see Stephin Merritt. He was a part of some "Lyricist's Voice" event held at the 92nd St. Y, and what I thought would be a boring lecture on music with a couple Stephin Merritt songs mixed in was actually an AMAZING interview with Stephin Merritt with a couple Stephin Merritt songs mixed in. Stephin is a fascinating, brilliant, and genuine individual, and hearing him talk about his music (and Meat Loaf's music) while playing songs in between (Aging Spinsters, Walking My Gargoyle, The Book of Love) was a true treat. He described The Book of Love (possibly my favorite Magnetic Fields track) as being a song about taking a trite, cliche expression (ie. the book of love) and illustrating that even the cliche can still be very emotionally powerful in the right context. The description was so profound in it's simplicity that I realized while hearing it that I was in the presence of a true genius. Considering how close I was to not going, I'm SO happy it worked out. It was well worth the insignificant price of admission. Consider my love of The Magnetic Fields/The 6ths/Future Bible Heroes/The Gothic Archies/Stephin Merritt fully revived.

Let's see. Thanksgiving was a nice one. Not much else to say there.

Tomorrow I might be making music with Phil? Call me Phil.

And on Wednesday, I go back to band practice. I've got 5 days of pre-production, and then 1.5 weeks later, 5 days of production re-recording the self-titled Wheatus album. We're hoping to have it for sale in the UK in February, hence the rushed recording schedule. Hopefully we'll get it done in time.

There are 3 parties on Facebook I've been invited to and am very much wanted to attend. And they're all within 9 days. And one's in Rhode Island. It's flattering... hopefully I can make it to them all. Though I'm questioning my ability to make it to Rhode Island for just one night. I might have to wait a little longer before I do my Rhode Island party rounds.

I miss my band.

One of these days, I'm gonna make a list of songs that are so good they give me chills every time I hear them. Songs that are as profound on the 50th listen as they were on the 1st. And the below song will definitely be on that list.


That'll be all for now.